Winners & Losers (April 2020) — Tyson Stockton // Searchmetrics

Show Notes

• Speaker 1: (00:00)Bridge toll California customer service number highway miles to the gallon Ford focus, high wind cave rescue operation. What is schema F best wine bars in San Carlos, California. Best Western hotels, our oldest Rinaldo. What happened with big grub? What tips for wedding should I send down the first series on other email clients? Identify fonts from where to find them or Speaker 2: (00:30)or April, 2020 edition of wi ers and losers on the voices of search podcast. Today we're going to take a look back on the month and talk about some of the trends behind the biggest movers, shakers, and slackers in the SEO world. Joining us for wi ers and losers is Tyson Stockton, who is the vice president of services. Tyson manages search metrics as SEO content and client success organizations and outside of shepherding their largest and most strategic clients to SEO success. He's dug through the search metrics suite to help you understand who's making moves in the SEO community. Okay, here's my monthly sit down with search metrics is VP of services, Tyson, Stockton, Tyson. Welcome to the voices of search podcast. Thanks Ben. Speaker 3: (01:12)Back again. This is month two of wi ers and losers over 19 Speaker 2: (01:18)month two of you recording podcasts from your bedroom in sweat pants. Just like the rest of us. For the record, everybody I put jeans on today. Speaker 3: (01:27)Yeah, Speaker 2: (01:29)I know I'm regretting it already. That said, it's been an interesting month in the SEO world. Obviously everything is colored by the shelter in place. The Corona virus dominates the headlines for the news story. Let's just start off there. In the SEO world, what are we seeing as it relates to the Corona virus? Speaker 3: (01:49)Yeah, it's been interesting kind of monitoring what's been going on across a lot of these verticals because we saw, and we kind of highlighted this in the last webinar where we saw changes in search demands that then we kind of spoke on previous podcasts even of how that visibility based on just the demand for now. So we've been seeing really interesting things from a behavior standpoint of clicks going to websites but no conversions and what the behavior between transactional versus informational intense. So that's been something that's been continuing to evolve as we go into this. Can we take one of the industries that in the begi ing had some activity, but I think a little more kind of conservative. People weren't sure how long this was going to ask, how deep that colonic impact was. He saw people holding understanding and really understand this last month we've seen e-commerce kind of open back up, especially with the big players. Speaker 2: (02:50)So last month when we talked about what was happening with the Corona virus, it was early days. We didn't have a ton of data. We saw some fluctuations in e-commerce. We spent a lot of time talking about which of the healthcare companies actually was benefiting and we also looked at what the impact on the travel industry was. I think it's interesting to talk about what's happened to e-commerce over the last month. There hasn't been a ton of changes in the healthcare space. People are still going to the CDC, they're still going to who people are still web MD and health lining as well. But in e-commerce we are seeing some fluctuations. Talk to me about what you're seeing in e-commerce. Speaker 3: (03:29)Yeah, so I think like the first one you always have to start with an eCommerce is westbound on is on relatively stable, like you, same sign increases, but nothing too exciting. Bigger news with them. They did a ounce kind of cutting back on their ad words and so that has a ripple effect. But you know, there's still the big elephant in the room still doing well, but nothing too much from a change month over month perspective from a visibility points. Other ones that have had substantial kind of movements, which has been a common company that we've talked about on the podcast. Warren had a really strong ones. They started with it about three or four weeks back with a roughly like a 7% jump in your visibility and that means getting our last couple of weeks with some small single digit gross in there as well as the Walmart's in that list. Speaker 3: (04:18)That's why another one too, where initially you saw the spike in like home office segment within electronics, we were looking for a keyboard. Now, all those areas of adjusting during home electronics within e-commerce is something that I insisted and we're kind of seeing the numbers come back where you're seeing rises in computers, TVs, people, well not necessarily necessities office, but things that are interesting and so best buy has bounced back a little bit from a rough January. So they're not quite back where they were at the start of the year, but they regained some ground. And then I'd say like the most interesting or most notable change has been accessing home Depot, home Depot. I would say out of this group definitely has the largest growth that we've seen during the quarter and really for the last few months. You know, even going into the last year, and this is the one, the websites among the in cars that's been showing some of the most growth. Speaker 2: (05:20)So do you think that these changes are based on user behavior and Google re-interpreting what people's interests are because everyone's lifestyles have changed or is this something that the home Depot has done to optimize their website? Is it something that Walmart's doing to take advantage of the search queries or is it really just a user intent question? Speaker 3: (05:42)I would say it's less of a user intent. Like we are seeing that change where you see what I'm saying, like zoom.us that's ranking for broad general terms like rooms or conference and so it's like Google is because of frequency that they're seeing those terms use. They're being like okay, they're relevant for this general broad term and that's part of the large increase that was solid zoom with these eCommerce players is not necessarily like the intent of what the user wants, but it's more of the demand of some of those queries. You have more people searching for things like keyboards, computer, like those type of transactional and same keywords. Speaker 2: (06:23)People are at home, they're trying to do everything themselves. So that's why they're going to home Depot. Speaker 3: (06:27)Yeah, so I think some of it is you have an increasing search volume from this and then I wouldn't say somebody as what I'm saying to my one put out some of the changes I think to cue in on those. I think it's more interesting to see the websites with the growth that had been across the entire first quarter and ones that you see have just spiked new over the last four to six weeks. That I would say is more of an evolving search demand where someone like home Depot that's been having these really strong week over week wins since the begi ing of the year. To me that sends more of a signal of actually making changes to the website that's not fitting within this search volume trend. Speaker 2: (07:07)So the other big news in the eCommerce space is Google bid, a big a ouncement saying that all of their product listing ads are essentially going to be free, right. People can submit their products to Google's shopping algorithm. Talk to me about the impact that that's having on SEO. Speaker 3: (07:25)Yeah, and that's interesting. I don't think we've fully seen the impacts and the numbers yet, but that one definitely caught my attention because he went back seven years ago or so. It actually used to be a free service and even though I saw the postings that they did on it of like helping out businesses, I don't know if I fully believe that like I think this is something that we know that Google has been losing ground to Amazon and some of the other players in the eCommerce space, so to me it would be hard to separate this from a business strategy would just say we're helping people as like a potential partner and also increasing inventory for that space. I think it's something that's interesting. We're not necessarily seeing being, this is like within the shopping within Google's page. I don't think that we're seeing an impact from a search presence on that change, but I do think there are that. Speaker 3: (08:19)It's going to be one piece that's interesting. Shopify a ounced their shop out that's putting down into the marketplace to compete with Google shopping as well as Amazon as well, but I think as far as like and really even maybe potential kind of losers for it. One thing that we are seeing, I think this co ects back to what we mentioned with Amazon on reducing spend is we are seeing that there are less keywords that are triggering ad words and there's been several posts and studies going around that have shown that there's been a decrease in CPC mean that more people are pulling back on ad spend. So you know you do have some better pricing available. But with that, as far as like what we're seeing from our data set is we're actually seeing a decrease in the percentage of queries that we're tracking that are triggering, whether it's an ad words at the top of the page on the page or a product listing and most notably the last two weeks abroad, a pretty substantial decrease in product listing, which is typically around 80% of a lot of these I-CAR versus ad spend. Speaker 2: (09:29)So talk to me about why you think we're seeing the less ad volume. I have a hypothesis that marketers are pulling back their budgets, so there's just less inventory being filled by Google. Is that the only factor contributing to why we're seeing less advertising on search results pages? Speaker 3: (09:47)Yeah, I agree that that's the most significant contributor with Amazon being a large part of that. And whenever Amazon makes a change in their ad words that you see it across the entire I-CAR space. And like when the Amazon introduced, Hey, we're go a run PLA ads, you saw an increase of CPC across the board on TLAs when Amazon a ounced a few weeks ago that they're decreasing. That's going to have impacts and POA being econs specific as where you're going to see it the most visible. So I'd say that would be the most significant contributor of it, but I also think that advertisers, and rightfully so, advertisers are being more targeted and where they're spending. So instead of like a blanket approach, every product kind of going, they're honing in on the categories that are doing well. So honing in on the home and garden electronics, whether it's home delivery on groceries and stuff like that, those categories, and staying away from maybe ad spend on things like luxury fashion goods. Speaker 2: (10:51)So we're seeing lots of changes in the e-commerce landscape. We're also seeing some changes in how people are consuming content. Talk to me a little bit about what we're seeing in the online education space. Seems like that's something that's relevant. People are at home if they don't have kids, they have lots of free time. If they have kids, may the force be with you. What are we seeing in the online education space? Speaker 3: (11:15)Yeah, and it's an interesting one too because we saw and knows just kind of back on like Google trends that there was a huge uptake in the online learning categories. And I think we know that there's been a lot of conferences that have been hit hard with this. And to put in place layoffs or for and see you have some fuel or sitting at home with more time on their hands. So we have seen from a search demand perspective, a sharp increase in online learning and type queries. But when it translates over to visibility, there's really two strong wi ers that I spotted off the bat and these kind of like online classes of course that and uni. So those are the two ones that are really kind of like separating themselves enough from each other. The difference between the two is only like a thousand points or so. So those are the neck and neck fine. Interesting enough. Linda, who also has online courses has been relatively stagnant during this entire time. So I think that's a good example of those demands catching the rising tide to it. And Linda having actually saw a missed opportunity to making sure that they're competing on those queries as well. Speaker 2: (12:26)So it seems like the industry as a whole online education is improving. Are we seeing the same things happening at the university level? Are people going to the university sites to get online education or just the content providers? Speaker 3: (12:38)So yeah, the university's not the same sharp upticks that we're seeing with these online courses. And I think a big piece of that is one like Coursera and all the others are offering courses from universities in those platforms. So you can take classes from Michigan, stay UCLA or whatever in those different platforms and that's just, Hey, I'm going to take one class. But as far as like the enrollment and a full, I feel there's bastards, et cetera, not seeing really huge changes there. So there has been some movement in the universities like didn't notice USC had a pretty decent uptick for where they're at in some movements that not the same large significance surge that we're seeing within these online trainings for online learning. Speaker 2: (13:29)So it's interesting to me, we're seeing a change in e-commerce. Obviously people are starting to think more about what they want to buy. Maybe they're fixing up their home. Home Depot is having a nice little run in terms of its search visibility. People are starting to think about how to get educated. So we're seeing some of the core Sarah's and you tummies of the world start to see a big boost in terms of how Google prioritizes them. What about in the healthcare space? Speaker 3: (13:53)Yeah, so the first one to healthcare, starting with the two largest players, when the Mayo clinic pretty much flat. There's nominal change week over week over the last one. So those ones that we know that this is a sector that has increasing in the end. So I think that's notable in the sense of, Hey, these guys aren't really capturing much in the back and then if we stay like, okay, where is that traffic going? No surprises here. The CDC is continuing to grow as last week, but otherwise, and kind of stagnant this last week, but otherwise since the begi ing of this consistent growth week over week of what their coverage is, same thing for the who not as pronounced and considerably lower than the CDC, but they're also high, very obviously strong couple months unfortunately. Kind of interesting though is the last few weeks that who has actually, so it hasn't been substantial declined points, but in the two to five point range, so this can be an interesting to monitor. Speaker 3: (15:00)It's like are people having a fatigue? I've read enough about this stuff, like I just want to forget about it or, and it kind of taking its course as far as like a certain aspect, losing grounds. I think it's a little too early to tell from that. I'd say definitely the CDC is continuing to capture the most. I would say they're really, the surprising one that had substantial increases was Healthgrades and Healthgrades had an Exxon mine just last week, the 26 increase, but you can go back to the very start of the year, end of last year. They started this surge and this growth and they ended the year around the visibility score of about 25,000 and now it actually started in the month of mistake. Their substantial, I'd say roughly estimating, probably like a 35% increase, but for the whole year they've definitely done the stretching thing and kind of improving elements of the site have regained some of that market share. Speaker 2: (16:05)Interesting to me that Healthgrades obviously in the healthcare industry, but really the center of their website is around finding a doctor and a hospital and understanding who the right care providers are. Not necessarily doing home education. Probably something that's good for the world. You mentioned that you know, maybe people aren't paying attention to the world health organization website as much because they're over satiated with coronavirus content. Tyson, I can tell you that I'm there. Let's just do a deep dive. Who's wi ing in the sports world? I miss it so much. Speaker 3: (16:41)Unfortunately I think all losing in this forest forum because I miss sports quite a bit. But as far as like which websites in which leagues are doing well, not as substantial changes, I was actually expecting to see a little bit more of an uptick from the NFL with the draft. They actually had a little bit of a decline in the last couple of weeks but nothing super substantial so it's been relatively consistent and I'll be very, very minor increases. But I'd say all four of the big leagues of NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, all of them are remaining rather stagnant. Speaker 2: (17:20)How about the content providers, the ESPN Bleacher report or CBS sports of the world? Speaker 3: (17:25)Yeah, I mean I think it's been, I was actually expecting to see a little bit more of enough tech, which you're seeing some so you know maybe my Michael is still doing his work for them. Speaker 2: (17:34)Michael Jordan, the last dance documentary even for the non sports fan. It's a wonderful documentary. You should check it out. Speaker 3: (17:41)Which yeah, I mean it's about the closest thing to wise force. Again that I haven't been saying, but the one that is actually has been kind gaining some grounds and there's still ways behind ESPN but has had a strong start to the year, not just for the last month but I'd say they are hitting an all time high for the last 12 months, which given a space that is suffering a bit for recent news and things like that. I would say that's definitely a win for bleach report. Speaker 2: (18:11)Yeah, I think that's an interesting commentary on content businesses in general, you know ones that are affected without real live news. Bleacher report is a website that really focuses on short form content, highlights not necessarily recaps and so they're kind of meme oriented content and they've seen an increase in visibility during the period of the coronavirus. While we've seen ESPN, you know, stay flat and you know, maybe even go down slightly even with the launch of the Jordan documentary. I guess last question for you, since we have to talk a little sports, I can't do more coronavirus content for anybody else who is a sports fan. The last dance documentary came out, it's the biggest thing in the sports world. Tell me how the Michael Jordan keyword is performing. Speaker 3: (18:58)So my majority one, no real surprise here, wake. If he is still locking down that number one place then, so that's kinda as we expected, but ESPN has made some ground there. Then they actually have a stacked ranking position, four and five for M JS file, and then also having that move. Then the last dance documentary, one spot, not in session five. Speaker 2: (19:28)What's interesting to me is it doesn't look like search volume has actually changed very much. The Michael Jordan documentary, Speaker 3: (19:34)I mean it's Michael Jordan saying it's just always right. Speaker 2: (19:40)Well, his athleticism as a 10 out of 10 but the search volume is, is actually kind of like a seven out of 10 he's still a retired basketball player and an NBA owner. Speaker 3: (19:51)Yeah. But this, this many years past his career, he's at a seven that's still amazing. Speaker 2: (19:56)Yeah. Waterfall. All right, Tyson, let's do it. Give me your wi ers and losers for the SEO community for the month. Who's your wi er for the month? Speaker 3: (20:05)My wi er, and this is just in the volume, I would actually give it to Healthgrades and a short close second place. I gave it to home Depot. Both of those websites beyond the month had a really strong first part of this year turning right direction. Speaker 2: (20:22)I'm going Bleacher report, the short form content, topical sports content, helping keep guys like me sane and obviously they've had some great gains in SEO as well. Talk to me about who your losers are for the week. Speaker 3: (20:37)Losers. I'm going to kind of go out of the norm on this one and I'm go a throw Google under the bus. Seeing the kind of decrease in ad words, presence, I mean I'm sure it's not really like necessarily hurting them, but also then really trying to scrap together a little bit more market share in this eCommerce world, but actually put that as kind of like a loser for this month. Speaker 2: (21:01)You know what? You know who I'm going to go with a loser. I'm going to go with the keyword Corona virus Corona virus. We are sick of you go away. We want to talk about something else next month and that wraps up this episode of the voices of search podcast. Thanks for listening to my conversation with Tyson Stockton, the vice president of services at search metrics. We'd love to continue the conversation with you, so if you're interested in contacting Tyson, you can find a link to his LinkedIn profile in our show notes. You can contact him on Twitter where his handle is, Tyson underscore Stockton, or you could visit his company's website, which is searchmetrics.com just one more link in our show notes I'd like to tell you about if you didn't have a chance to take notes while you were listening to this podcast, head over to the voices of search.com where we have summaries of all of our episodes, contact information for our guests. You can send us your topic suggestions or your SEO questions. You can even apply to be a guest speaker on the voices of search podcast. Of course, you can always reach out on social media. Our handle is voices of search on Twitter. And my personal handle is Ben [inaudible]. Speaker 2: (22:03)And if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of SEO and content marketing, Speaker 4: (22:08)so it's in your podcast feed, we're going to publish an episode every day during the work week. So hit the subscribe button in your podcast app, and we'll be back in your feed tomorrow morning. All right. That's it for today, but until next time, remember, the answers are always in there. Speaker 5: (22:21)[inaudible]. May 1, 2020